Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-30
TEA AND COFFEE.
The Cheering Leaf and
Fragrant Berry.
INDIA A. RIVAL TO CHINA.
The First Coffee House in London
and Old Pepy's First Cup
Of Tea.


ing in facts and figures about tea, tina
useful sister Of the proud and orna
mental camelia-plant that luxury o
the richest and solace OF the poonest
The Commissioners OF Customs have
just given us a batch of them, show
ing that in the long rivalry between
tea and coffee the former is winnin.
the race of popularity, and becoming
year by year more widely consumed
and more financially important to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer and tt
commerce. For some reason not easy
to determine the fragrant cherry o.
Mocha" is gradually but evidently de
clining in favor. The gross amour,
collected on coffee for the last ter
years has been mainly moving in
a downward direction. The bulk
consumption for the year end.
ing December 81, 1875, was 49,.
2S6,0l6 pounds, showing demand
per head OF the population ol
1861 pounds. The gross consumption
for the year down to December 31st
last, was 81 ,60S, ,304 pounds, showing
q sale per head of the. population Of
1861 pounds, a decrease per head oi
100 pounds, or at the rate Of 10.4 pei
cent.
While the receipts from coffee, how.
ever. prove substantial diminution,
those from chicory fairly keep pace
with the increase OF population, a sin
lister piece OF statistics which goes to
demostrate that adulteration may have
much to do with the apparent decline
OF coffee. Why, indeed, should the
wholesome and aromatic infusion,
which properly made, is so restorative
and digestive, become less in vogue il
it be not either that the mass of the
people fail to get good coffee, or are
not supplied with it brewed in the
proper. manner? Probably both causes
are at work against the berry which
the Prophet would wisely have
blessed and recommended in the
Koran if he had lived to taste it.
Coffee receives very scant justice from
Western cooks. In the east they
would be scandalized to think of per-
sons 81 ignorant as not only to waste
but actually to grind it weeks and
months before using. The delicious
flavor of the finjan in Turkey, or
Egypt, Or Syria is due to the simple
fact that the aromatic oils OF the kernel
are brought out by heat at the moment
of consumption, and that the cafej.
scorns to min2le the vulgar limitation
of cllieory, or the viler produce Of
burnt beans, with the cup which the
Arab fondly calls The Bride of the
Pipe"
The chief virtue of cofee-the way
in which it preserves indefinitely the
subtle cdors and favors gathered in
the tropical sunshine, but once pull
verized quickly parts with them-is
against its use. The public must have
extremely convenient in
respect of its meats, drinks, lighting
and everything else. Eggs are so uni
versally employed because they are
the very epigrams Of food, condensing
in the most portable and
available form. Gas, which ought to
have been abolished long ago in favor
Of the electric lamp, hoNis its own be-
cause of its fatally obvious handi-
ness as an illunlinant. So tea out
does coffee in popularity, because it
yields its best results with SO little
trouble or precaution; for, if the leaf
is good at first, it is only necessary to
keep it well closed from the air to
have as good bowl as the Expresses
of China could desire. Tire pale green
berry, however, ought to be roasted
and broken and ground every time
real cup Of coffee is required, which
rule is seldom or ever observed. The
is the administration of
poor decoctions which might make
Mr.. Nathaniel Canopus, the Cretan,
who first brewed the true beverage at
Balliol College, Oxford, rise from his
grave to protest.
Strange, indeed, it is to reflect that
the West has only known coffee since
1910 AID, and the earliest coffee-house
in London was opened by Edwards,
the Turkey merchant, at Georgeyard,
Lombard street, in 1862 A. ID. Now
far and wide, in climates fit for it,
grows the beautiful coffee bush, with
its creamy flowers and scarlet "cher-
ries," and glossy dark green leaves
since even here pound per head of
the population implies a considerable
cultivation, and, abroad, wherever the
the hookah, the cigar, Gig
arctic, or pipe "weave their light blue
tangles in the sum-" there coffee is the
indispensable companion Of the weed.
Tea, meanwhile, notwithstanding
protests from doctors and
deans against its alleged rerve-
exciting qualities, grows steadily in
use among us. The Commissioners
Of Customs informs us that taking the
same years for comparison, in 1875
the bulk consumption amounted to
ISL ,274 1925 pounds, equal to demand
of 4.52 pound per head of the popula-
ton; while in 1886 the bulk consump-
ton amounted to us, ,009,8Sl pounds,
equal to sale of 4.87 pounds per
head of the population, an increase of
OBS pound, or at the rate of IT per
cent. Here, again, is most marvel
GUS development of an experiment in
for in 1869 the East India
Company quite timidly instructed its
agent at Calcutta "to buy for 80
the best tay you can gett,"
and old Pepys records how he drank
his first cup of it with all the COM
placent self-glorification which that
primeval gourmet must have exhib-
tied who swallowed the first oyster.
Tea is tremendously historical; it
separated the United States from
England, but, although everybody
knows how the tea tax led to the
Rebellion, few are aware
that the tax was voted by the merest
accident in the House OF Commons.
Tea will become more historical still
for it seems destined to reverse the
places of India and China, and, with
the wheat and jute. trade, to pour new
rivers of wealth into the Queens
Eastern dominions. Hindostan is
rapidly gaining upon China as our
source Of supply. In 1875 China and
Hong Kong supplied eighty-four PEI